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Category Archives: the furry ones

Today saw me go to Animals in Need for my 2nd volunteering morning! I didn’t know where I would be but it turns out I was cleaning and feeding the rqbbits and rodents. An easy feat, I thought, owning 5 myself! Well… my back tells a different story.

I didn’t capture all of the animals, just a mere handful, as I lugged around cages cleaning them and making sure the furry lil ones were all ok. I can’t say I didn’t fall in love, I did. Several times over.

Some were indoors, some out… all really depended on innoculations and the like. All of them were super friendly, one took a liking to my leg, others followed the brush with every sweep.

That cat there kept nudging my head and wanting a fuss every two mins, she’s a resident and SO cute! Although I was warned she would quite happily swipe my face off, she just seemed to want some fuss. So cute.

I also cleaned out a couple of Rats. Was a bit nervy, they were lovely tho, very timid and really just wanted to hide! Cat say I blamed them.

Then there was this chap:

His named is Jake, a 10yr old tri colour Collie with one blue eye, one brown. Ugh it was love at first sight. My old dog was called Jake, also a tri colured Collie, I call it fate he would have to come home with keep, sadly Simon thinks we have too many pets and my pleas fell on deaf ears. I’m sure Jake will find his forever home, his owner had to go into a home so he is probably a little lost. Everytime I walked by he ran for his toy and dropped it for me, such a cutie.

The shelter owner added me on FB and thanked me. Which I thought was lovely, and now I’m in Kennels next week. My heart isn’t sure it can take it, but we will give it a go.

So today was the “big” day for me, my first day as a volunteer at Animals in Need. It’s a small farm type place with soooo many animals! I didn’t know what i’d be doing, but next to my name was “Wildlife Sanctuary”… and that is what I did today!

What did my duties consist of? Well.. for one I was glad it was mostly indoor stuff, because it’s effin’ freezing out there. I fed a hedgehog, I bathed two tortoises, I fed a bunch of African Land Snails…. I avoided the caged Squirrel because apparently he’s a bit nippy, someone had hand reared him from a baby and kept him caged, but then had to hand him over and he’s gone a bit insane, apparently. I freed a pigeon… and cleaned out/fed/watered a bunch of birds.

There are injured birds inside, and tons of birds outside, the pigeon pen is open hatch, so they can come and go as they see fit. We put one of the previously injured pigeons out there and it flew straight off into the trees. So that was nice. There are 28 hedgehogs there currently, all waiting for warmer weather to see if they can be released back into the wild. There are a couple of cat mauled birds and ones that have smacked into cars that they don’t think will make it, but they are trying to make it as comfy as possible for them, so that’s kinda sad.

I had to deal with live mealworms and frozen baby chicks! ICK! I did turn my nose up a bit at those, but the Owl and Kestrel eat the Chicks, so we had to defrost them and trudge out and feed them, I never realised before today just how big Owls eyes are!

All in all it was a good first day, I will be going back regularly and I think you get rota’d in, so I will not become “The Wildlife Whisperer”, hopefully I will be placed in various sections.

The one thing I don’t like about the Wildlife bit, is you’re not supposed to talk to them, because they are to remain cautious of humans, which makes sense for when they are released, but when you’re handling a cute baby hedgehog, you kinda want to baby talk to it! Also there are two resident parrots in the Wildlife bit, and they speak, so I had a mini conversation with one of them as I fed him a Green Bean and tried not to get my face pecked off changing his water.

It was bloody cold, very muddy and what not, but you could see that these animals were well treated, loved and being nursed back to health and it just made you stop and think for a second about what really matters in life, sooo glad I did this!

I didn’t get any pictures today, seemed rude to keep whipping my phone out, but I shall have to try and get some pictures of the pigs there, or maybe a video, cos they are NOISY buggers! Oh and there is “Upside Down” Pigeon, who has a disease so his head is always pointing the wrong way. I felt kinda sad for him, and his name lol.

Good news, ratfans! I have been accepted by Animals in Need to volunteer there!!! I am so excited. I love animals and this is my chance to do a bit of good stuff. I know i’ll be falling in love left right and centre, but it’s one of those things i’ve always wanted to do, I’ve just never gotten off of my buttocks to do it… so now I have finally managed it, I feel good!

I am looking forward to smooshing the dogs faces and petting the cats, i’m even not worried about cleaning out the rabbits and guinea pigs and I HATE doing it with my own, but you know, needs must and all that jazz. So yeah, we’ll see how that goes, hopefully I’m allowed to take photos of the animals and share with you, cos I know you are just going to fall in love with them too!

I’m already wondering if I can sneak a few dogs home and hide them in the downstairs toilet, but I don’t think that’s really very feasible, they won’t have enough room to move, oh yeah and Simon may notice, damn him and his eyeballs.

I love animals, like… super love them, if I could give all of the animals that needed a home somewhere to live and call home.. I would without hesitation, but with 3 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs and 2 cats, Simon is reluctant to have anything else and I understand, and I still really miss our dog, Jake… I would love a dog, and a rat.. and some sort of lizard.. oh and hamster! I had 9 hamsters in my bedroom when I was younger, I miss those noisy little buggers.. but we’ve probably got enough on our hands, so this seemed like a great compromise, but someone start a betting pool on how long it is before something accidently falls into my car on the way home.